http://drive.google.com/open?id=1MTfYumPk_kcGRE4lFNgfSMvLd8oyTfBd
When writing or compiling a literary document the author has a purpose in mind for their work. This purpose can vary for many reasons, some may include: the authors preference and creative decision making, why the work is being created, and what types of sources are being used to create the work. Guernica is a literary magazine that introduces elements of artistical mediums such as photographs, story’s, and poems with the hope that people will seek their site above others for the persuasive, political, activist nature that it exhibits. This rhetorical analysis will seek to examine the ways that different stylistic elements combine to invoke certain emotions that encourage the reader to walk away with messages, thoughts, and ideas that align themselves with the sites purpose which will have been fostered from viewing and exploring the site. It is this purpose that will guide this video and serve as a reminder for us that there is always an underlying purpose to creative mediums in this world whether the purpose is on the surface and proves to be quite obvious, or the purpose requires some examination and deliberation to seek out.
The website Guernica is a forum in which many authors may publish their work. They do this with a mindfulness to their audience. The target audience for the site is a radical, mainstream, activist group. This is not to say that there will not be ideas that are both conservative or liberal in nature but that the main purpose of the site is to explore ideas in both arts and politics that align to the ideas that they are being published without a qualm to how proper socialite members feel about them. This audience is proven through examining such works that the site has to offer which include articles entitled “My Mothers Secret Ballet” (Parsons) that explains a young woman’s disbelief as to how her mother could have voted for Donald Trump in the past election and her negative opinion of her mother for doing so. Another example of an art form that supports my claim that Guernica is a forum for radical, mainstream activism is an article located on the arts page of Guernica entitled “Here We Abandon All Destinations” (Feinman). This article discusses the art form “drag” that is frowned upon in many circles, especially those that consist of conservative middle-aged individuals, but that is accepted by those who subscribe to a more radical or even moderate activist view.
Guernica has a main purpose to make a statement. Through the articles and visuals that are available on the website it is apparent that the creators of the site want visitors to leave with some information that they did not know before, and to be pondering issues that afflict them and this society in ways that cause them to ask questions, explore and possibly challenge their own beliefs. The collection of stories Guernica offers shows this purpose; one that stood out to me specifically was entitled “Thirteen” (Yi-Seoul). The story was accompanied with a photo of people walking around a train station and at first glance it did not make sense to me until I read the article and discovered that it was about a thirteen year old girl who gets pregnant due to the fact that she has lived most of her life at a train station, and as a result to combat and attempt to alleviate her poverty, she takes to prostitution. This is just one story that Guernica has to offer but it gives an example of the types of works that are available and the nature of these works. Upon further examination of the site, the works are similar in nature with the way that they share a purpose to question the difficult and/or deeper meanings of topics that many people in society consider to be taboo which can be seen as a common theme in all of the works that have been mentioned thus far.
When examining the context of the site one must take note of certain pieces and their meanings. Guernica is a website that is a collaboration of works from multiple authors. In todays society where the internet can be used to reach large numbers of people in short amounts of time the medium was probably chosen with this idea in mind. The website allows for ease of accessibility which in theory should increase readership. Similarly, the website is meant to be read with an eye towards current events. This is evident through the chronological organization of articles and works, and through the slogan of the website “15 years of global arts & politics”. To understand the context of the site it is also important to understand the overall genre. The overall genre of the site is nonfiction because the site exists to convey information (the articles and works that are provided on the site) to their audience. However, as a result of a collaborative website there are other sub-genres that exist which include fiction and poetry.
We will now focus on analyzing the layout of the Guernica website by utilizing a chronological method in which we will begin our analysis on the home page and continue until we reach the last tab to the right. When one clicks on the home page the screen that comes up is primarily black, white, and orange. However, there is a purple and yellow banner advertising a video that appears periodically in green and was probably put in this color to stand out from the rest of the information. This page also includes featured articles, text and, images which will change periodically throughout the day, and subsequent articles that are arranged as one scrolls down the page. One the home page there are five real instances of color (including the advertisement on the right-hand side) but if one takes a closer look the photos that do have color feature primarily orange and yellow coloring. This fits with the overall theme of the website design as the donate button (located in bottom left hand corner and top right-hand corner of the site, and the LARB banner are orange. The home page uses two types of font, the first includes a blockier style that could possibly qualify for times new roman and the second consist of a thinner style more reminiscent of Calibri. The color of these fonts also differs. Depending on the purpose for the font it will either appear in white, gray, or black which is a distinguishable feature that promotes user ease of access because the distinction allows one to tell between the summary/synopsis of the work and the tile of the work.
Next we will navigate to the “Arts & Culture” page. This page stays with the same them of colors that the homepage introduced however it provides graphics that include images with more diverse color tones as is noted when scrolling down and acknowledging articles and their images such as those of “Heavier Than Air” (Bernstein), and “Kristen Arnett: It Starts With an Image” (Brown). Another feature that the site offers is the bar that is located at the top. We have already examined this bar regarding theme, but it is important to note its spatial orientation. The bar is located at the top of the page with the website name and a “subscribe” and “donation” button. As one scrolls up and down the page the bar remains at the top where it can always be seen. The font style of the site remains the same, however let’s note that the site also offers a description of the works category which is located under the work in a gray box. The first category that appears is the category of the page that we are on and in some instances, there is a secondary category that if clicked on will take you to that categories page. These boxes can be found classifying all works on Guernica including those on the front page. These boxes are used to promote ease of access because it encourages easy navigation throughout the site.
Next we will navigate to the “Politics” page. This page follows the layout of the previous pages with a few notable exceptions. This page contains some articles that do not have images that are advertised with the summary of the work. These articles include: “Cities of the Future: I Didn’t Leave My Heart in Beijing: (Tuten), and “Cities of the Future: New York, My Love” (Frederic). The articles are grouped together on the page and this location allows for readers to make the conclusion that the works are part of a series. It also allows for ease of access with regards to being able to easily locate another article in the series after you have read one. When we scroll to the bottom one can see a gray box with orange lettering entitled “see more” which if clicked will show more articles under the heading of politics. These promote user ease of access because it provides the most recent articles first and requires the user to specifically select the option to see more pieces. It also limits the amount of information that is being given to the reader which promotes comprehension.
The “Bodies and Nature” page continues to follow the website theme. However, on this page the viewer is immediately greeted with pictures of nature that accompany pieces such as: “Little Gods” (Jin). This page also adopts the chronological order of article placement that is used throughout the site. “Thirteen” (Yi-Seoul) begins the order due to its publication date of January 20, 2020 and “Black Rock City” (Laughlin) ends the order (unless the user should choose to hit the “see more” button as previously discussed) with its publication date of April 17, 2017. This chronological order of articles allows for the information to be presented in a cleaner way. The viewer does not have to sift through multiple articles from many different years to find the most recent one. They can simply look to the top of the page and find the most recent article. It also promotes user ease of access because it makes the information easier to find which will in turn guide research and information gathering.
As we navigate to the “Lives page” there is one thing you as the viewer have probably noticed by now. There is a bar located towards the top of the screen that has been following us through the site. The bar consists of articles that the website recommends the for the viewer to read. This particular day the site continues to recommend article “Hanif Abdurraqib and the Performance of Grief” (Desphande) among others, but like the featured articles on the home page as those articles change so will the articles located in the bar. This page also includes a subtitle under the title “Lives” which reads “First- person essays”. This subtitle promotes readers ease of access and makes it easier for readers to comprehend information. The ease of access is promoted acknowledged when the site indicates the way in which pieces on the page will be written in the first-person point of view. If the viewer does not like that style of writing, then they can quickly make the determination to stay or leave the page. Comprehension is increased because the reader will know the point of view the article is written in and be able to synthesize and annotate said article.
The sections entitled fiction and poetry are identical in layout and mimic the same layout that has been seen previously. The pictures on both pages are listed above the publication names and serve to provide a visual representation of the publication. The photos and articles are organized in sets of 4 with an advertisement appearing on the page periodically. All of the photos are the same shape and size which allows the viewer to easily navigate the sight without having to question whether they missed a photo due to its size. The size and layout of the photos also plays an important part in the viewers evaluation of the image content. With all the images being close together the viewer must examine each one for a bit of time or else they may miss an images content because they are so close together that they tend to blend.
This leads to the Specials page. The specials page is set up differently than the rest of the site. The site provides an explanation for the specials page that explains why the publications have been selected. In this case the site believes the articles are noteworthy and bear being featured on their own page so that people will give them extended time and consideration. With this disclaimer the site is helping those who are processing the information because it is allowing these people to make a decision as to whether they want to pursue these selected noteworthy topics or remain on a specific topic page. As the viewer navigates down the page one will notice that the site has adopted more methods of making this page stand out form the others. These methods include only featuring one publication per line rather than four, assigning no category to the publication, and printing the title in orange font. All of these stylistic choices combine together to further depict the message that is at the top of the page.
Lastly, the “More” button when selected leads the viewer to a page listed “Explore”. The theme of black print and information bars stays the same, however the layout of information and images changes. As opposed to previous pages in which the publication included a picture and summary of the work, there are only pictures on this page. These pictures are used to represent category’s that if clicked will send the viewer to that section which will provide them with articles about the topic. Rather than the images being four across on this page the images are five across and divided into category’s entitled: explore, topics, and specials. These categories (upon further viewer analysis) provide information that did not fit on the pages we previously visited but that the site still wanted to include. With this in mind the site has created a negative experience for the viewer due to the fact that the additional informational headings must be sought out. Without deep exploration of the website the viewer may have difficulty finding information on categories such as “family & relationships”, or “health”.
The website Guernica exists for a purpose. The purpose as defined previously is to convey information published by a collection of hosts that is a nod towards persuasive, political activism. The site seeks to persuade people to not only adopt and pursue similar ideas to the ones that are displayed but to begin thinking and empathizing with some of the stories that are written. The site designers kept this purpose in mind when they were building the site which may be the result of the sites diversity and clarity. Nevertheless, the stylistic elements of font, images, and genres combine to implore the reader to spend time on the site, and consider what each publications authors have to offer.
References
Bernstein, Roslyn. “Heavier than Air.” 17 November 2019. Guernica. 13 February 2020.
Brown, Victoria. “Kristin Arnett: It starts with an Image.” 3 July 2019. Guernica. 13 February 2020.
Desphande, Jay. “Hanif Abdurraqib and the Performance of Grief.” 10 February 2020. Guernica. Document. 13 February 2020.
Feinman, Amanda. “Here We Abandon All Destinations.” 8 March 2019. Guernica. Document. 13 February 2020.
Frederic, Tuten. “Cities of the Future: New York, My Love.” 15 June 2016. Guernica. Dpcument . 13 February 2020.
Jin, Meng. “Little Gods .” 8 January 2020. Guernica. Document. 13 February 2020.
Laughlin, Scott. “Black Rock City.” 17 Aoril 2017. Guernica. Document. 13 February 2020.
Parsons, Rachel. “Politics.” 29 January 2018. Guernica. Document . 13 February 2020.
Tuten, Frederic. “Cities of the Future: I Didn’t Leave My Heart in Beijing.” 15 June 2016. Guernica. Document. 13 Ferbuary 2020.
Yi-Seoul, Kim. “Thirteen.” 30 January 2020. Guernica. Document. 13 February 2020.